A Dark Favor
by Trooper 3.6
Summary: Hitman Jackie Estacado goes to Italy to do an old friend a favor and soon finds himself with an advanced assassination agency after him. But in the darkness of the night the hunters become the hunted.


Author's notes: Okay people this will be my second gunslinger girl fanfic and this one is actually based off of the manga not the series although thus far the two are pretty much exactly the same from what i've seen. This one is easy for me because it is continuing the story from episode three of the anime. Latter in he manga Mario finally testifies against the Mafia and Triela and Hillshire are sent to guard his daughter Maria. So here we go Oh and by the way for those of you out there who saw the whole series but haven't read the anime, Hillshire is actually from Germany, there is another girl named Beatrice and the point i am at in the manga is clearly ahead of the final episode of the series (i just grabbed a book off the shelf so i'm not sure) so for all of you who couldn't help but shed a tear when Anglica didn't answer Marco as she lay on her hospital bed with her eyes shut. You may all now ceace to mourn her because...SHE'S STILL ALIVE! yeah! anyway here you go for the record this may become part of a bigger story latter so stay tuned.

"So this is Italy," thought Jackie Estacado as he gazed around the glittering city of Napels. "The land of my ancestors," he continued with a slight sense of disapointement. He had just emerged from the subway which shockingly wasn't to different from the one in New York. Now with a clear view of the streets and the city, apart from the language, the area didn't make him feel to far away from home. He scanned the locals all the same clothing as back home all the same cars all the same cell phones if it wasn't for language and the street names he might just as well be in the lower east side. "Thought there'd be more togas," he thought out loud imagining the countless movies hollywood had rolled out over the years about ancient rome and Ceasar. He smiled at his own joke then reached into the pockets of his black trench coat. His smile changed from a sarcastic joke to a darkly reasuring grin with help from is otherworldly crew he was able to sneek his forty fives along with him. No way he was leaving the country without them. Just like his nocturnal compadres, these had been his few relayable companions for the past few years, since he turned twenty one. Since he lost his dearest companion. He cleared his mind and began to walk casually down the side walk. He doubted he would have to use the forty fives anyway he wasn't In Italy on business, he was there to lay low and let things cool of back home. Usually he'd just spend a few weeks in some hic town upstate but the boss had offered him a free ticket to Italy. He wasn't going to accept it at first, but then he recieved a phone call from Mario Bossi (his second uncle twice removed). He had met him only a few times in person one or two of them were with his daughter Maria, she like him a lot and he made sure to spoil her as much as possible. She was a good kid though. In the phone call he had explained that he was testifiying against the families in Italy, which Jackie didn't particualarly mind, as long as his name wasn't on the list. Mario had gone on to explain that his daughter would be placed under survailance by government agents, but he would feel a whole lot better if Jackie would come by get her out of the house, hopefully without any trouble with the agents guarding her, and show her a good time; he had also given Jackie the name, address and phone number of his daughter's boyfriend, just in case she was extra lonly. Mario had been a good friend to him, there was no way he was going to let him down. So he took the Boss up on his offer and now here he was hundreds of miles from home with a wallet full of cash, a pair of .45s, a cell phone, his trench coat and a band of spiritual thugs to his name. Nothing to worry about if trouble came looking for him, but he had no intention of going out of his way to find it. He figured he'd take Maria out to dinner, maybe a movie, maybe buy her a fancy dress or some jewelry. If push came to shove he could set her up for a surprise date with her Carlo (her boyfriend). He walked for about half an hour following the directions Mario had given him, eventually the urban area had faded away into smaller narrower cobble stone streets lined with almost adobe looking buildings every twenty yards or so along the sidewalk was an old fashion lamp post updated with light bulbs of coars but it was only three o'clock in the afternoon so they were not yet lit. "Now this is more like it," Jackie said to himself with a slight sense of satisfaction, he couldn't help but smirk. This was what he had pictured when he imagined Italy. An older but a lot more classic look to it. Old school, but simple and peacefull. Jenny would have loved it. The smirk quikly vanished and Jackie continued on. As he walked he passed a small and very old looking church he had passed several churches along the way most of them shiny and new (what can you expect from the country that spawned the Holy Roman Empire?), He didn't think anything of it but someone else did.

"Not another one!" wailed a dark deep voice inside Jackie's head. "That's the 12th one so far!"

"Actually it's the 13th," another almost equally dark voice growled in correction.

"Oh shut up!" roared the first voice. It's bad enough we have be so close to so many holy places at once without you trying to show me up!"

"Wait a minute?" came a high pitch squeaky voice. "That's 13 churches isn't that good for us?"

"No, Idiot," the second voice said calmly. "The number 13 only applies if items being counted are inheritantly evil or contains bad luck," it explained. "13 churches is not the same as thirteen black cats, or from the opposite prospective; 7 churches..."

"Oh will you both shut up!" the first voice demanded. "Damn it Boss, why of all the cursed places in this continent do we have to come here?"

"Shut the hell up, all of you," Jackie said out loud as he walked, the roads were deserted at the moment so he had no fear of anyone noticing him talking to himself. "Family first you know my rules, you whining little bastards," the voices fell silent. "I don't know what your all bitchin about anyway. It's Italy, land of the Ceasars, former pagan capital of the world, gluttony on tap and the homeland of the Mafia, what more do you want?" he asked retorically. "Unless of course your homesick and I don't mean the big apple, if you want I'm sure I can find a way to arrange a long vacation for ya, I hear the burning lake is nice and warm this time a year," Jackie offered with a smile.

"Point made Boss," all three voices said in unison with an obvious sense of reluctance. "But so many churches Boss," the first voice begged apologetically.

"Take it easy," Jackie replied. "It'll be getting dark in a few hours anyway."

"You got it Boss," all three voices sigh in unison.

Jackie sighed himself. They had all been silent since he arrived in Italy. And this was only three of them. They were all naturally talkative, especially on the plane ride down from New York, which actually helped him keep his sanity. But now a sudden out burst over a few churches! Jackie had figured they'd do a little complaining but even they weren't the types to make such a fuss over this. Either the flight had taken it's toll on them or this peninsula had been ruled by Catholocism too long. Finally Jackie arrived at the address Mario had given him. He looked across the street to the Bossi residence, the house was bigger than most of the others and looked slightly newer, this of course was no surprise to Jackie. Neither was the black car parked directly outside the front drive way, nor the squinting blonde haird man behind the wheel; who had immediatly returned Jackie's gaze and narrowed his squint even further. Jackie cracked a smirk, barely keeping himself from laughing out loud on the side walk. He returned the blonde man's frowning squint and gave a wink before turning and continuing to walk down the sidewalk. "Yeah, up yours too Asshole!" he thought in the direction of the black car. Jackie turned left at the next street corner and made his way to a back road one that would lead to the back entrance to the house. He figured there would most likely be a sentry guarding the back too but there was no harm in at least checking. He could see from down the street that the back entrance was not guarded, which meant there were probably Feds inside the house which would complicate things he began walking towards the house when he passed by another black car. By sheer chance the windows were down and the two people inside were talking. "You sure this is the place," one voice asked in Italian. Jackie stopped dead in his tracks.

"Yeah, this is the address they gave us and remember the car guarding the front?" said another. Having spent half of his life with the Mafia, Jackie had learned to speak Italian with relative ease. "There's probably guards in there, and we know there is guards around the front. How are we gonna get to her?" the other asked.

"Don't worry, she's been couped up in there for over a week," said the first. "If genetics mean anything, she'll probably be coming to us." The whole thing was so obvious that Jackie didn't even have to think. His hands instinctivly gripped his .45s, but then he remembered hereing from the boss that his prestige had stretched all the way to Italy. And being without a car and no navigational knowledge of the rest of the city what so ever he figured he could use a chauffer or two. He slowly turned to the car; standing at the front left corner of it. The two thugs inside the car looked at him. Jackie shot them a smile.

Maria was still congradulating herself on escaping her guardians/captures as she dropped down from the second floor window and landed beside her father's car. 'Why did you have to be a gangster Daddy?' she thought with a sigh. It certainly would have saved her a lot of time and complications if he had not been one. Now that she had evaded her captors inside all she had to do was hope they didn't have a guard around the back. She quickly turned the corner around the back of the house and shrieked as she ran face first into something hard and black. The shock of the impact had nocked her backwards onto the ground. 'Great, I'm caught,' she thought and shut her eyes with shame. 'And after all that!' she complianed to herself.

"You all right there, sweety?" asked a thick and familiar New York accent. Maria opened her eyes and looked up into the eyes of a handsome raven haired young man, one she remembered from years ago. "Been a while," he said with a warm smile. "So how ya been kid?" he asked.

"Jackie!" Maria cheered with joy and within a matter of seconds had leapt up form the ground and locked her older cousin in a death dealing bear hug. "I've missed you!" she complianed.

"No kidding," Jackie gasped through her strangling death grip. "Look sweety your Daddy called me so I know you've got some apparently unwanted company and like if they catch us, the feds around here'll be putting one more gangster in the slam," he explained.

Maria came to her senses and released Jackie from her grip. "Oh right, we've got to get out of here, they should be out after me any second!" she gasped and began to look worried.

"Take it easy, you think your Jackie came here without a plan?" Jackie smiled. 'Well you'd be right,' he thought to himself. "Quick this way," Jackie grabbed her by the shoulder and lead her down to the street where he waved to a black car down the street.


End file.
